Raven Brooks, Netroots Nation ED welcomed everyone, and invited the union workers from the Westin, Biltmore and RI Convention Center up. They thanked Netroots Nation for standing behind them and helping them win back their benefits, pay and jobs.

Amazing. @ravenb brought up members of the local hotel union of the Westin Providence to the stage. They’re thanking #NN12. #goosebumps50+1 Strategies

Local employees from The Westin thanks everyone at #NN12 for honoring their boycott and helping them win their basic rights and jobs back.Demos_Org

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America spoke about women’s health and showed this powerful video.

"I Have Sex" – students speak out against ideological attack on Planned Parenthoodcoffeepartyusa

"To most women it feels like we woke up to a bad episode of Mad Men" – @CecileRichards, President of @PPact at #nn12Anna Pycior

Bill McKibben spoke about blocking the Keystone XL pipeline and how we can stand up to the fossil fuel industry.

"The fossil fuel industry is the 1% of the 1%—they are the absolute center of trouble on this poor old planet" -@billmckibben #NN12 #99PowerThe 99% Power

@BillMcKibben #NN12 we can stand up to the fossil fuel industry and their money with our creativity, passion and spirit #p2 #OWS #ecologyrob kall

"We may lose this fight, but given the stakes, we are going to have to fight," @BillMcKibben at #NN12Jamie Henn

Lily Eskelsen, VP of the National Education Association, spoke about the need to stop the push to deregulate, defund and privatize.

Some of 2012′s most exciting races involve strong, progressive women who are leading the national conversation on not only on women’s issues but also things like the economy and LGBT rights.

Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono and Washington’s Darcy Burner are each known for standing up for workers, the middle class and equal opportunity for all. That’s why we’re excited to have the three of them on the big stage at Netroots Nation.

In a Friday lunchtime session moderated by the Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel, Warren, Hirono and Burner will address the past year’s growing War on Women and the GOP war on the middle class. They’ll discuss what playing offense looks like for women and how election wins this fall will translate to policy victories in 2013 and beyond.

The 99 percent have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers yet we haven’t seen this outcry reflected in the policies in Washington, where conventional wisdom lands somewhere between the status quo and austerity. The middle class continues to shrink and the poor get poorer, while the wealthiest continue to prosper while skirting the rules.

What does our economic outlook look like—and what should our progressive vision for it be? How do we free ourselves from what Paul Krugman says can only be called a depression? What role can activists, bloggers and labor play in ensuring economic success and equality? These questions and more will be discussed in this keynote session.

From Troy Davis to Trayvon Martin, Stop and Frisk to Stand Your Ground, our country’s current criminal justice policies are not only creating a culture of fear in our country, but a second social class. The systemic problems that exist are often borne of old-fashioned bigotry and prejudice. How can we educate others on the role that race plays in our current judicial system? How do we end the cycle of violence that plagues so much of urban America and promote uplifting alternatives to violence and incarceration? And how can the progressive community join with social and racial justice organizations to empower communities—and change a system that essentially undermines social movements and threatens progressive power?

The closing session at Netroots Nation 2012 will be anchored by activist and Rebuild the Dream co-founder Van Jones. We’ll also hear from NAACP President Benjamin T. Jealous, Howard Dean, Congressman David Cicilline (RI-01), Rhode Island State Representative Teresa Tanzi and Chuck Rocha. The evening will be emceed by comedian and writer Elon James White.